Favorites - 14 Favorite Force-Wielders from Star Wars

Well, we got a couple of weeks to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It seems like I’ve been in a Star Wars frenzy lately. The Mandalorian is on Disney+, and yes, I am enjoying yet another streaming service. I played the retro game Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 – Jedi Outcast and finally beat the dang thing. Seriously, what was up with those Nar Shaadaa levels? That Street level wanted to make me break the TV! Anyway, another game I just finished was the recent Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order. Thankfully, Respawn has finally given EA a pretty cool Star Wars game.

 I think I got a couple more posts about the franchise in me. While there may be more movies left to go, it looks like Episode 9 will be the last for the Skywalkers. One of the coolest things about the franchise was the Force and the Jedi/Sith conflict. You had a lot of cool characters on both sides of the conflict. This list will be about my favorite Force-wielders in the franchise. I didn’t want to split up the whole Jedi/Sith thing since I’m kinda lazy tonight. Besides, some of these Force-wielders have towed that light/dark side line. It’s also not in order, but I will put the favorites up top.

"It's a Video Game!" - Assassin's Creed: Rogue

Well, it has officially gotten cold… in more ways than one. Seriously, it was 54 degrees one day and over one night, we got  rain, sleet, and snow! It’s not even winter yet and TN is getting snow. At least this gives me time to catch up on some movies, tv shows, and of course, video games. I finally finished Assassin’s Creed: Rogue during this time, so that’s next on the AC docket.

AC: Rogue was released on the PS3 during November 2014 right at the same time AC: Unity was being released. I guess Ubisoft wanted to make some more money off of the PS3 for one last time. Since Ubisoft was concentrated on making Unity the big one, Rogue was much smaller in scope. It’s pretty short (only six sequences) and takes a lot of assets from AC: Black Flag. Even though it’s small in scope, it touches on a lot in the franchise in an interesting way. Reviews were decent for the game but some felt it was a cash grab at the time. Is it truly that or something more? I’ll elaborate below.

In the Present Day, Rogue pretty much picks up sometime after Black Flag. You’re “Nameless the Game Tester” again. Because of some weird hack at Abstergo Entertainment (kinda made to tie into Unity), you’re pretty much trapped in the building. You’re being ordered around by Osto Berg and his underling to go back into the Animus and live the events of Assassin-turned-Templar named Shay Cormac. Yeah, we get to play on the bad side… sort of.

Favorites - Seven Creepy Moments from Non-Horror Video Games

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of horror games. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’m just not that interested in them. If it has a lot of zombie shooting, there is a chance that I won’t play it since I kinda of want more than that. That doesn’t mean I don’t like horror themed games. I own Vampyr on the PS4, and I think The Wolf Among Us could be considered to be horror. By the way, I finally was able to finish that game. I wish it got a sequel.

 I think I like it more when RPGs include horror elements. Heck, most RPGs tend to mix in a lot of genres together to make something pretty memorable. So, I’m going to go into detail about 7 scary moments from non-horror video games. I was going to go all out and make this a longer list, but I then hit a block when it came to finding scary moments in non-horror games. Besides, this just leaves me to get a little more detailed on these moments and levels. So, let’s start out with what’s probably my first big scare in video games.

1. The Final Level from Spider-Man

“RAWR!!! DIIIIIEEEEE!!” Imagine hearing this for an hour. That’s how long it took me to beat a pretty short final level on the PS1 version of Spider-Man. I hadn’t even ate food for Thanksgiving yet because this thing held me up! In the level, all you gotta do is swing away from the pretty freaky combination of Dr. Octopus and Carnage (Carn-Ock? Doc Carn?). Beating those two separately was hard enough, now I gotta face a merged version of them? While it would’ve been interesting to actually fight them, running from them kinda sounds better.

Anyway, while running like a coward sounds simple, you have to swing, climb, and run your red and blue butt off. You’re jumping over pipes, climbing walls, and running. I think there were a couple of times where I was like “All right, take me!” or something like that. I think I also only got to really beat this once since my PS1 ultimately gave out on me. It’s definitely one memory from I PS1 days I have still held on to.

Movie Talk - Universal Studio's Creature from the Black Lagoon Movies

"Man, these folk coming up and interrupting my fun time with myself!"

Next up for the spooky month is a look at one of the final Universal Studio Monster: The Creature from the Black Lagoon or “The Gill-Man.” The Creature (“Gill-Man” sounds lame) came about in the 1950’s when horror was trying to branch out from the supernatural. Now, you had mad scientists doing bad science, nuclear tests gone wrong, beasts from eons ago inflicting havoc, aliens coming from the sky, and all sorts of mad hysteria. Universal Studios wanted to get in on that action, so the Creature was born. The Creature movies were the last few movies that Universal Studios did in this branch of horror. It’s a monster whose influences can be felt today. Just look at Abe Sapien from Hellboy and the beast from The Shape of Water for examples.

The Creature was featured in three movies: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956). Now, I saw the 1954 film a long time ago. It was one of the only Universal Monster movies they had at Movie Gallery. When my sister got the collection, I watched it as well the second movie. I didn’t even get around to watch the last movie until a couple of days ago when I marathoned them all. So, how did Universal’s last Monster fare out in his movies?

Movie Talk - Universal Studios' Dracula Movies

Dracula: Hmm... I'm quite good in the novel, it seems.

Well, it’s time to return to the Universal Monsters once again. Since I’ve gone through my favorites like the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man, it’s time to touch upon the Count himself: Dracula or Vlad the Impaler. He was the one who started it all with Dracula released in 1931. Even though he’s not the first vampire to hit screens (there was Nosferato in 1922), he’s definitely the most remembered and most parodied.

Now, of all of the monsters, he’s probably my least favorite. Even though he was the one who got this all started, he’s on the low end of the list. He’s not bad, per se, but he lacks something the other monsters don’t lack. I think it has to do with the fact that he is just an evil predator. He’s just going around taking advantage of anyone and killing them. The rest of the monsters have more going on than just being destructive. The Frankenstein Monster’s a destructive but naïve dude, the Wolf Man is a dude struggling with the beast inside, and the Gill-Man (who I’ll get to later) is just a dude who wants to be left alone… and get a hot lady on the side. Drac’s just evil and that’s it. Still, are the movies good? Let’s find out.

On today’s list is the following: Dracula (1931), Dracula’s Daughter (1936), and Son of Dracula (1942). Now, I do remember seeing Son of Dracula when I was younger. I hadn’t seen the 1931 movie until a few years ago when my sister got us that big collection. As for Dracula’s Daughter, I didn’t see it until a few days ago where I watched all three movies back to back. I was going to watch the Spanish version of Dracula, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. It’s basically the same as the 1931 version but with Spanish actors. The same sets are even used for it.